Shadow and the Mask
by Shadlay
Summary: Shadow and Rouge are set off onto a mission to find a chaos emerald.Shadow gets attacked by a wolf and discovers an odd mask. What will this mean for Sonic and his friends? Will Shadow be okay? T for language.
1. Chapter 1

The Mask

GUN was very busy today, due to a recent Chaos Emerald discovery on Angel Island. There top agents, Shadow and Rouge were sent along with the orders to find and retrieve it. The area where it was detected was on ancient Mobian burial grounds, an unknown area.

As soon as they were dispatched Shadow and Rouge hopped onto a helicopter.

"Wow, I can't believe they found another Chaos Emerald." Rouge said, looking out the windows at the greenery below. "Didnt Sonic find one just a week ago?"

Shadow grunted in agreement. His link with the emerald was growing stronger, and he couldn't wait to touch it. Rouge noted this with a wistful eye.

'He thinks he's gonna touch it first does he?' She thought slyly. 'I think it's time for my plan.'

"Hey Shadow! Let's have a little friendly competition shall we?" Shadow looked up at her. "Sure." "First one to find the Chaos Emerald gets any material item of the other of their choice." Shadow raised an eyebrow at this. "You take your cake and eat it."

When they reached the discovery sight Shadow instantly jumped out of the aircraft and ran off into some nearby shrubbery. Rouge grumbled and set off in the opposite direction, maybe that idiot echidna could help her find the gem.

Shadow dashed through the dense bushes of the tropical, floating island trying to get a stronger connection with the emerald. 'This is proving rather easy.' He thought to himself, smirking. 'Anything I want from that batgirl...' Shadow pondered this for a moment, stopping his skates to pause in thought. "Unlimited ramen for a week." He said after a few minutes. With that Shadow dashed off into the distance

Rouge glided gracefully of the emerald alter, landing neatly next to a snoozing echidna. As soon as he heard the smooth tap as Rouge's metal toed boots he snapped awake and punched the closest thing near him, which unfortunately for him, was his precious Master Emerald.

"Aw shit!" he exclaimed staring at the shattered emerald. He then glared up at the smiling Rouge and frowned. "Why are you here? You better not be trying to steal my emerald!"

"Emeralds." She said correcting him. "Shut up!" Knuckles screamed.

"I'm looking for a little help, in the form of an emerald." Rouge said. "Shadow and I are having a little completion you see, and I thought I could ask you." Knuckles took a deep breath. "What's in it for me?" Rouge smirked at this and ran her index finger down his red chest, then put her finger near her mouth, imitating Cream begging for a lolly. Knuckles blushed at this, and slowly nodded, smiling guiltily.

"There's a good boy." She said.

Shadow walked into a dark cave, somehow happy that he was winning. Rouge was gonna regret the day she challenged the ultimate lifeform! Now his ramen was only a few steps away! Shadow stopped for a moment and fantasised about swimming around in a huge bowl of ramen, occasionally stopping to take a big gulp or slurp up a noodle. Shadow then remembered that he couldn't swim. Not in ramen anyway.

A growl from the back of the cave snapped Shadow from his train of thought and readied him into his battle position. An earth fox charged at him, it mouth frothing and is teeth bared. 'Eww... I can't let that bite me.' He thought pulling back his fist in a preparation to punch it in the face. Shadow took a dash at the fox and thrust his fist at the creature's nose. Its dark, cold eyes stared up at him, as Shadow matched the glare. The foxes nose, jaw and teeth connected with Shadow's fist, leaving a long, deep scratch up his arm.

Shadow kicked the half dead fox into the corner and raised his jet shoe at the weakened animal. Blood splattered the walls as it howled in agony and died.

Rouge and Knuckles looked around in shock as they heard the foxes howl pierce the forests humid air.

"What the hell was that?" Knuckles asked Rouge worriedly.

"Let's find out." She replied running into the direction of the howl.

Shadow sank against the cold cave wall, removing his gloves and now slightly damaged, and blood stained shoes to inspect the gash. They really actually **hurt. **Shadow never really felt pain this bad, except for when he occasionally fought with Sonic. But this was very dangerous, because unlike Sonic, as far as Shadow knew, the fox had rabies. Rabies **killed **people.

'Fuck the competition' he thought tearing up his socks and gloves to make makeshift bandages. A dusty wooden item caught his eye, and he picked it up with his good arm. It was a dull orange mask, which had a narrow face and two long pointed ears. It had long red stripes coming down from its eyes and ending at the bottom of the mask. Shadow turned it over and inspected the inside. The Chaos Emerald was lodged in its pointed eye socket.

"Great. How am I gonna get that out with only one good hand?" He said to himself, pouting.

Suddenly a strange feeling ran up his back, and up to his mouth. "Shit!" he yelled tossing the mask in front of him, and crouching onto all fours. He felt his lunch rising up from his stomach. He began hacking like a cat, spewing vomit on the ground in front of him, gasping for breath.

"Damn that bloody fox!" He choked vomit dripping from his mouth, staining his hands with a terrible smell. The feeling still stayed and his lunch soon became blood, splattering all over the cold cave floor.

'I need help.' He thought shuddering his vision blurring and his limbs going numb. 'I'm gonna pass out.'

Rouge stopped running, panting for breath, and trying to remember which way the howl had come from.

Knuckles looked at her. "Are you okay?"

"I lost it." Rouge said.

"ROUGE!" screamed a voice. "ROUGE!"

"That way!" Rouge said running through the shrubbery.

Shadow throat was hoarse from his cries for help, and his eyes were barely keeping open.

"Were the hells are you...Rouge..." Shadow managed to mutter before sinking into unconsciousness, landing face first into the fox mask.

**There's the first chapter done. What do you guys think? PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. Mysterious Encounters

Mysterious Encounter

**I've done a bit of research on the disease rabies, and it's actually very interesting. Also this is the hardest chapter I've written in my whole life, (curse you writers block! Curse you! ).**

Commander had always had his doubts. Employing that thief Rouge was a mistake, making him very doubtful. Hiring that huge robot, E-123 was probably a huge mistake, due the large amounts of destruction that GUN had to pay for.

Then they offered Project Shadow a **job. **It was the president's idea, and being lower ranked than him, he had to comply. Oh how he hated that black devil, just waiting for him to fail, so he had an excuse to fire him.

Rouge and Knuckles cut through the dense bush, gasping for breath. Rouge looked up from her brief rest and saw what looked like cave.

"In there." She panted, jumping into the air and sailing forward.

Knuckles smelt the blood before he saw it. Most of it was covering a deceased fox, and some of it was slowly oozing out of dark forms mouth. Rouge crouched down to get a closer look. The odd creature had a narrow face, which ended in a point where at its forehead two long narrow ears. Two long red stripes ran from its eyes. It had a long fox like tail, with a red zigzag pattern streaking down its back. All along its right arm was what looked like a bandage?

Rouge looked up from the animal, which was currently unconscious.

"Where's Shadow?" she whispered. Knuckles shook his head. "I don't know, but I think he might be..." Rouge looked around. A green glint caught her eye.

There, by the face of the animal was the green Chaos Emerald. Rouge picked it up and held it to what there was of light in the dim cave.

"He found it first." She said, eyeing of the gem.

Shadow's world was dark. Muffled voices were murmuring somewhere far away, and a dull green glow was radiating in his head.

Urgh, it was all that Chaos Emeralds fault, or was it his for being so careless? Shadow then remembered what type of condition he was in. He had to wake up or he would die.

Rouge lowered the shining gem from her face, and stared down at the creature. It suddenly twitched. Rouge took a step back.

"Knuckles?" Rouge murmured. "I think we should get out of here now." Knuckles knelt down near the animal and poked it. It stirred slightly, and moved its paw forward.

"It's waking up." Knuckles whispered, tapping it again on its nose. "Knuckles!" Rouge shouted nervously. "Don't wake it up, what if it's rabid?"

"Since when were scared of an earth animal?" he chuckled looking up at her slyly. "Since a huge plate sized spider tried to bight when I was on an expedition in the Amazon." Rouge said.

A growl snapped through the air. The creature's eyes flew up angry and lunged up at the startled Knuckles.

"Shit!" Knuckles shouted leaping away, and readying his battle position. "Rouge ladies first."

"Gladly." She muttered darkly, throwing a powerful kick at the monsters leg. The creature slammed against the cave's wall, causing the entire cave to shake violently.

"Let's get out of here!" Knuckles shouted above the noise, as heavy rocks poured from the ceiling. He grabbed her hand and ran out of the avalanche.

"The Chaos Emerald!" Rouge yelled, restraining against Knuckle's tight grip. "Leave it." He ordered running off into the forest, taking a shouting Rouge with him.

Shadow's head was throbbing as he felt something rip from his face and fall onto the ground with a thud. Rocks were falling all over the place crushing whatever the hell came of his face.

Shadow groped desperately for the shining emerald, as a boulder just above him began to loosen from the noise. Shadow, finally grasping the gem, immediately teleported away, just as the boulder crushed the ground beneath him.

Amy had just finished planting her new daisy when she heard a crash about a block away.

"I wonder who that is." She muttered dully, rubbing her dirty hands clean with a rag. Standing up and brushing of any dirt that might be on her bum, she dashed at the noise.

Shadow painfully crashed on top a filthy rubbish bin, spewing garbage all over a five meter radius. Angry shouts plagued his aching ears as he staggered up. He felt so fatigued, and couldn't really remember where he had just been.

"Oh Sonic!" said a pink blur squishing him in a bear hug. "I missed you so much why do never visit me?" Amy looked up at the startled and rather smelly hedgehog. "Wait... you're not Sonic! Sorry Shadow!" Amy said quickly detaching herself from the half lidded hedgehog.

"Hey are you okay?"She asked worriedly. Shadow looked at her for a moment, then after some thought nodded. "I just have a headache, it'll go away soon." With that Shadow departed to his apartment.

Well **their** apartment really. Rouge had let Shadow live with her until he could back on his feet, which, much to her annoyance had taken quite a long time. Shadow had gotten there in a flash (of chaos energy) and set the green emerald onto the table.

'Why didnt I teleport here first?' he thought to himself, sitting on the couch and staring down at his right arm. 'Did my injuries affect the Chaos Control?'Shadow carefully peeled of his torn up bandage and headed for the shower.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

'Okay, the shower was a bad idea.' Shadow thought miserably to himself. 'At least I'm not smelly anymore.'

Shadow eventually found some ointment in Rouges' make-up cupboard and winced as he rubbed it into his long, no longer bleeding cut. "Now I gotta find some **more **bandages!"

**There... reviews would be nice. And maybe some ideas... Now also I have a little completion. Which coupling should this one be?**

**1 Shadamy**

**2 Shadouge**

**3 Sonadow**

**4 Other.**


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